Clara Oswald is going the long way round (alwaysbeenthere) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-02-20 08:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, clara oswald, thalia grace |
Who: Clara and Thalia
What: Investigating a ‘turtle monster’
When: Recently
Where: Park
Warnings: Low
Status: Partner Thread | Complete
By now, Thalia was pretty used to weirdness. When you dreamt of being a demigod and ended up with the ability to singe people’s eyebrows off, it really reset the bar for what would be eyebrow-raising.
So when she heard someone claim something about a turtle monster while she was walking through the park, she slowed down but didn't join the crowd gawking into the bushes. Weird dreams or not, people could still be totally off the mark when think they've seen anything out of the ordinary.
It wasn’t like it was an official assignment or anything. Clara was just bored, and if this supposed turtle monster turned out to be a real thing and not someone being messed up on drugs or something and it exploding from there because well, they did live in Orange County so people might be more willing to believe it… well, doing a little reconnaissance on the matter wouldn’t hurt. If she needed backup, she could just call her dad.
Of course, the fact that there were a lot of people trying to see it didn’t help matters. Oh well, she had psychic paper for that.
“Excuse me, coming through, Department of Animal Control.” That was a department here, right? Oh well. The psychic paper worked and people thought she was official which was the whole point of it.
That was a pretty quick response from the Department of Animal Control, especially when it took them forever to come out that one time her mom’s friend’s illegal pet alligator got loose at a house party, but maybe turtle monsters took priority over illegal and dangerous pets.
Whichever the case, Thalia was intrigued enough by now that she hovered at the fringes, more interested in the animal control agent than in the purported monster. Maybe it was the uniform. Or lack thereof. Maybe it was the lack of monster-battling gear. Either way, this was going to be interesting.
No one said that Clara was known for being prepared. Neurotic control freak, yes. But in situations like this? Being prepared wasn’t always a thing that happened. No matter, the psychic paper had done its job so it didn’t matter that she didn’t have a proper uniform or gear. Which… thank goodness. Yes, Clara was a brilliant liar and was used to these sorts of investigations but it was always easier when there weren’t too many questions.
Making her way to the bush, Clara clicked her Sonic Sunglasses to scan for any peculiar heat signatures which.. Okay there was something there. But not a typical heat signature of a living creature. Crouching down, she pushed the brush away and shook her head some. Not a monster, but dangerous in it’s own way.
“Nothing to see here.” Besides a smoking piece of what could only appear to be an attempt at a ceramic turtle, the smoke creating the ‘monster’ effect. Whether it was placed by idiot kids who didn’t know about fire danger or what… well, that didn’t matter so much. No need to set the city on fire even as it was far wetter for California than it usually was.
A chorus of groans greeted that pronouncement, accompanied by a few “I told you it was nothing”s. The crowd eventually dispersed, but Thalia stuck around. She’d learned in her dreams that what might appear to be harmless things weren't always. Failing that, she wanted to see what kind of ridiculous thing that prompted cries of a monster sighting.
“What was it?” she asked of the woman who'd dug into the bushes. Clad in a hoodie with her hair chopped short, Thalia looked very much unlike the glamorous socialite loved to put on their covers. Hey, marriages didn't break themselves, according to Us.
One could never trust what the papers said. Then again, Clara didn’t pay much attention to the gossip rags so she really, who knew. Instead she was just shaking her head at the unnecessary panic. Yes, fire hazard though it was wetter in the area than usual. It was probably people being so used to strange things happening that the relative quiet since the holidays made them jump to conclusions.
“Ceramic project gone wrong by the looks of it.” Turning, the British woman showed Thalia the ceramic turtle.
“Wow, must’ve been really wrong if it got mistaken for a monster,” Thalia remarked.
From where she was standing, it looked pretty normal - but she knew from experience that a bit of weed or anything stronger could turn the most ordinary things into the scariest. Or the weirdest.
Satisfied that no one was going to get eaten or trampled by a turtle monster, Thalia turned to the other woman. “Are you seriously from Animal Control?”
All Clara could do was shrug at the comment.
“I imagine the fact it was smoking had something to do with that. Plus general expectation of weird things happening here. Or someone was high when they first saw it and next thing you know….”
Mass hysteria. Which was a problem, though at least this particular mass hysteria hadn’t led to people being hurt. She did pause before shrugging.
“Maybe not exactly Animal Control, but I do investigate some of the more… peculiarities of the area.”
Ah ha. That would explain it. “Like an Agents of SHIELD kind of thing?”
It probably wasn’t, but Thalia had grown up as a child of an actress. Television and movies were how she related to the world. And hey, there were worse things to be compared to.
“It must never be boring around here,” she added. If someone wanted peculiarities, all they had to do was read the network.
While Clara didn’t know Agents of SHIELD precisely, she did know Marvel, which meant that she knew what SHIELD was. “Yeah, kinda like that.”
Which… was actually accurate. Both UNIT and the Agency worked more in the shadows to protect the planet and have cover stories in place, so she could go with the analogy.
“No, it certainly does not. Peculiar is just another day ending in Y.”
“If all peculiarities ended up as ceramic projects gone wrong, I’d be fine with that,” Thalia said. “Anyway, now that I know I’m not going to be eaten by a turtle monster, I’ll go about your day. Good luck with your super secret classified stuff.”
“So would I.” Because really, sometimes not having to worry about some new strange thing was a good thing. “Thanks, you too.” With that, Clara turned around and went about her day.